Tell me about Glentress

Heading up there early Feb. How does the red route compare to say the likes of Dalby etc?

Can you get a red loop of Glentress and Inners done in a day?

Any other info/tips gratefully received!

Calling all haters. Calling all haters…

Its brilliant. Really brilliant. The red has a lot more fun stuff than Dalby does but is shorter. The red at Dalby is long (possibly longer than the black at GT?) but pretty tame. GT Red is much more fun biased than XC biased like at Dalby.

You could do a red GT loop and Inners in a day but personally I’d stick to GT and vary it a bit. Spend some time in the bike park, maybe take the red up to Spooky Woods but continue up the fire road to meet the black where theres some excellent descents. Its also well worth doing the blue descent from the bike park down to the visitor centre. Tame but massively fun and if you’re tanking it (the only way to do it) then the jumps and drops become pretty good.

I’d do both. GT is a fun place. Mix up the black and red. Find a local who will show you the ‘off-piste’ stuff, that’s the best parts there. And Innerleith is blinding, defo my fav out the two. Caddon Bank is way faster and more fun than Spooky Wood. Plus plenty DH trails you can pick up and play on, they are mucho fun. Get up early enough and you can do both in a day, they are only about a 10 minute drive apart.

by the way that new ‘blue’ decent is unbelievably good. In fact the blue is a good/fun trail full stop.

I like Glentress, it was the first trail centre I visited all those years ago and still may favourite. I prefer the black to the red, but they’re both good. The inners one is really good too and a step up technically. The inners one is effectively one climb one decent, but a good climb and an excellent decent.

Did the red in the dark a couple of months ago that was amazing!

Good facilities (here we go…..) friendly local people who are very ‘switched on’ to mountain bike tourism and to top it off its even a decent night out in Peebles on a weekend!

Don’t know what Dalby is like but there’s a fair amount of climbing at both GT and Inners. If you do all the good bits at GT, you’ll be looking at around 3,000 feet of climbing, plus another 2,600 at Inners from bottom to top.

Your daylight hours will be a little limited in late February perhaps so I’d be inclined to stick to Glentress and have several REALLY good fun trails that will leave you grinning from ear to ear rather than trying to cram too much into one day and wondering if you haven’t missed the best bits of both…also inners can be pretty hard work…

It’s a great spot – miss riding there a lot. The best thing about it is that the trails are pretty dense for a UK trail centre. You can ride what feels like miles and miles of varied singletrack without repeating yourself, get back to the car and it’s only been 2 1/2 hours or something. This is not so feasible if it’s your first trip I guess, but you could still look on the map to see how things link up.

GT is also built on the side of a decent-sized set of hills, so there’s good up and down, a lot more so than other trail centres IME. If you take the black out to the radio mast that is a big climb (and lovely set of trails), which then positions you nicely to choose your routes down.

Don’t forget Berm Baby Berm (blue) as part of your route back to the Glentress trailhead. It’s great. GT just gets better & better. I’d save Inners for another day as it’s a slightly different riding experience. Look at the OS map and weave some natural XC trails into an Inners day for an epic ride.

bang for buck glentress. lots of folk there though generally….

inners for more xc and effort reward.

no cafe at inners but town is 2 mins ride away from trail-head.

both great fwiw.

I’d actually say stick to the main trails for your first time at GT. The off-piste stuff is good but the main trails are what you really want to hit on your first time round there. It’s very easy to forget just how good they are when going a lot which is when the off-piste options come into play.

One definite is Berm Baby Berm, it’s part of the blue and goes down beside the freeride area. Must be one of the best bits of trail in the country. The Red goes past it, you’ll see the freeride area then there’s a trail off to the right with loads of berms.

If you’re travelling a long way for it try to stay for two days, one for GT and one for Inners. There’s plenty there. You can always take the car to the freeride area at GT if you’ve got a little bit of energy left at the end of the day to play around. Cuts out the climb but that’s just if you’re nearly done in – it’s a pretty nice climb if there is such a thing.

Great fun…

Here is the free ride park…..

The blue is also very fast and flowing….. SPEED!!! 😈

Part of Inners is closed (logging) at the moment, so there’s a diversion. As others have said, I’d stick to GT. Do the full red, then you can fit in a mixed red/black/blue or just do the blue for a laugh.

I’d second the opinion to stick to the main trails for a first visit and not mix it up till you’ve seen the red, blue and black in full. A combination that never ceases to please is full red, food stop and then full blue. That would be around 5 hrs depending on length of food stop. The full black, for an average fitness group with some scenery stops etc is probably around 3hrs – although there will be many along shortly talking of riding it in 90 mins !!!!

90 mins for the full black !!!! 😯

90 mins for the full black !!!!

I remember there was a post on here a yr or so back which was all about how fast folk could get round it. I didn’t post up as I am slow !

Don’t worry about off-piste stuff for your first trip – loads to go at without that.

Oooh, I want to go now!

I was doing two laps of the black last year in 4 hours but on a hardtail it really beats you up.
I can highly recommend deliverance but the climb back up redemption is best described as horrible.
Glentress is great but be their early or late as it can be busy.

I much prefer GT to Dalby. I found Dalby a bit dull and lacking in features but I know some peopel really like it.

You can do both Innerliethen and GT red in a day. A bit of willy waving but I have done GT red, Inners and GT black riding in between them in about 5.5hours as training rides for longer races (and fun!) Inners takes less than 90 minutes at full tilt but you’ll want to be sick on the climb.

Anyway, I’d suggest stick to glentress and mix up the black red and blue. Real easy to do, head out on the black then after redemption start to head up to spooky wood. Then join the blue on the way down. The black isn’t technically that hard but longer and rougher which makes it tougher. There are a few hard bits but nothing killer.

Watch out for novice riders on the blue, it is not a 4x track so expect kids. It really is fantastic though, big sweeping fast corners smiles wider than a pair of superstar yardsticks.

The Glentress red is sublime. Brilliant.

Can’t wait now!! Best take the camera too!

i must be the only one that would prefer the red at Innerleithen to the red at glentress then? i would say that you have more choice at glentress so i’d head there and if it was me id be hitting the black every time. Never got close to 90mins though but i did do it in just over 2 hrs a few years ago when i was fit.

Do the full red

Generally good advice but I’d consider doing the optional Pie Run and Mushroom Pie sections instead of two bits of the main red (The Matrix and Lombard Street). These are found partway down the main descent and are fairly well signposted and mapped. Basically on the main descent, when you get to a bit that points you up a fireroad climb, look for a trail entrance to the fire road’s right.

Even if you don’t do that then Mushroom Pie in particular is very easy to do without skipping any bits of the main red. When you get to the start of the Magic Mushroom trail you’ll see a trail exit directly opposite it. Climb up the fire road you’re on for a very short distance and turn right when you get to the next junction. Mushroom Pie’s entrance will be on your right.

No need to do off piste stuff at GT especially if its ur first time, I dont actually know where the off piste stuff is anyway and I think Ive been to gt About 30 times now…I find it better to mix and match the trails, I think some folk are going overboard saying berm baby berm

Must be one of the best bits of trail in the country.

😯 ..its good fun but nothing special, certainly not one of the best trails in the country, best section of “blue” for me is the last section to the fire road,great flow and nice wee drops…always great fun

GT is basically fantastic, surprised the usual snobs haven’t been out…

Definately don’t feel tied to the route, there’s tons of good variations. Frinstance, at the Buzzard’s Nest car park, ride out following the black XC route signs along the fire road, watching out for the obvious trail on the left, Zoom or Bust (between post 103 and 104, takes you out near post 120). Lovely, and an official trail but not on the maps. Takes you straight back to the top car park in a nice wee loop.

Likewise, off the red climb nip down Berm Baby Berm (signposted) as you pass it then back up.

Once you get to the Pie Run (post 45), you’ve got options but it means doubling back- climb up and do the Matrix, then switch onto the black for the Bitch, then down the black Wormhole at post 50… Then, back up the hill but keep on going past Magic Mushroom and soon, you’re right back where you started at post 45, with only a couple of minutes extra climbing.

(the Bitch and Wormhole are relatively hard, though)

Oh and don’t ride past Pennel’s Vennel on the red, loads of folks do but it’s well worth the extra climb you have to do after it. And when you get up Sair Fecht on the red, it’s not hard to spin back up to the Buzzard’s Nest again and do the blue descent back down.

Innerleithen’s XC trail is overrated IMO but still worth the ride.

If you really enjoy Spooky Wood then you’ll like the last bit of blue (Good Game) back to the car park – it’s fast, smooth and has lots of little jump and drop features. If however you prefer some of the other trails, such as Pennels Vennel (Northwind is right, IMO it’s crazy to skip this out just to get to Spooky Wood quicker) or the Pie Run then stick to Falla Brae for the final descent. There’s a bit more climbing but it’s a lovely trail with an interesting black option and some incredible swoopy bits (that some numpties are increasingly straightlining, bah, but ignore them).

For me the Innerleithen XC route has some impressive bits to it but it isn’t crammed with so many special moments as the red at Glentress is. Also the red/black options at Plora Craig are a bit annoying – the red line is a bit dull but the technical sections on the black are considerably more difficult, quite trials-y in places. I usually like the challenge of the black bit but I think that a better red option there would make the Innerleithen red route better value, so to speak.

Brilliant trails. Enjoy 😀

Funny isn’t it -everyone has their own views – I love glentress but almost always miss pennels – lose all your hight in one hit then spend ages climbing again.

Its a fantastic facility tho and I like being able to mix and match. going there on Saturday with a very mixed ability group – and everyone will have fun I am sure

i love riding gt and inners. meet mates ride and beers after with not a care in the world other than riding for shits and giggs

When i was there, a lap of the red took me 85 mins

http://app.strava.com/rides/2934581 as proof 😉 (and that was my first ever time there)

It’s hellishly fun, and it’s not that tiring as there’s a big old descent at the end. Oh, and spooky woods at the top (i think) is hellishly fun. The first climb does however, go on, and on, and on, and gets steep in bits. Just blast up it, it’s fairly straightforward.

Spent an afternoon there playing on the jumps, then i did glentress the next morning, and then a DH afternoon at inners. All on the same bike 😀 (after fort william was cancelled due to massively strong winds)

I rekon you can get a lap of glentress done, starting at about 9:30am, then go the cafe for lunch and cake, then a lap of inners easily within a day. You’ll even have time to be back at the pub in peebles at 5pm for an all nighter!

The relative busyness of Glentress is overplayed in my opinion, sure there are lots of people but there are many miles of trails. And occasionally it is nice to speak to people, decide who’s going first down the trail and all that. Enjoy. And as others have said, do the blue, it’s great fun, some of it is nicely worn in and rough enough round the edges to catch you out if you switch off, just watch out for slower riders, kids and dads with little ones on the back of their singlespeeds 😉 nichetastic.

If you’re going to do GT and Inners…I’d do Inners first, get a bite to eat in the village or GT, do whatever at GT and then you’ve got the facilities to get washed/cleaned up/have more to eat if needed.

All positive posts which Is great to see , I’d spend all day at Gt as well and do the red to Spooky then onwards to the Boundary trail then down deliverance to redemption and double back to Spooky. Do the complete red descent to the peel have lunch then back up for a play about at the freeride find the secretish unmarked trail at the left hand side of the wall ride follow that down and have a quick pedal round the green (yes green ) Back up to Buzzards do Blue Velvet , Berm baby then follow the blue as fast as you can to the peel .
Great trail centre and facilities.

We stay in Innerleithen for a week every year for our anniversary. Glentress is great fun and very, very pretty, and all of the routes are fun, even the very short green. The free ride park is also ace.

Stanfree that sounds like a good route. I won’t be able to find this topic for when I go next so to help me search HUMA

GT is ace. The red’s a lot of fun, as is the freeride park + the blue back down to the car park.

I love glentress but almost always miss pennels – lose all your hight in one hit then spend ages climbing again.

It is beautiful in the autumn though when the larches are golden and trail is golden with larch needles too. They are cutting a new bit on the way down in there too, not sure if it is open yet.

You have time to look at the trees?

i too never ever miss out pennels – i even enjoy the out-climb excepting the fire-road up to the “banana-bench”…

the_lecht_rocks – Member
i too never ever miss out pennels – i even enjoy the out-climb excepting the fire-road up to the “banana-bench”…

That. The singletrack climb is great but the fire-road section is a pain 🙂